The Venture Bros.
| format = Action Comedy | runtime = 0:22 0:11 (one episode) | creator = Jackson Publick | starring = James Urbaniak Christopher McCulloch Michael Sinterniklaas Patrick Warburton Doc Hammer | country = United States | network = Cartoon Network (US) Teletoon (Canada) Bravo (UK) | first_aired = August 7, 2004 | last_aired = present | num_episodes = 28 (1 pilot and 1 special) | imdb_id = 0417373 }} The Venture Bros. is an American animated television series airing as part of Adult Swim on Cartoon Network. It chronicles the adventures of two dopey teenage boys, their super-scientist father, and their father's secret-agent bodyguard. The series pays homage to the style of the classic Hanna-Barbera action series Jonny Quest: Hank and Dean's roles resemble those of Jonny and Hadji, Dr. Venture is a caricature of Dr. Benton Quest, and Brock Samson presents a testosterone-loaded, excessively violent take on Race Bannon (though Flashbacks show that Dr. Venture was more like Johnny in his youth, and his own father was a more traditional "Dr. Quest"). It has been stated by the show's creators that the show also parodies Hardy Boys mysteries and comic super heroes, although the show does not focus exclusively on parody and has begun to develop its own storyline. Show creator Jackson Publick (a pseudonym for Christopher McCulloch) was one of the main writers for the Saturday morning animated show The Tick, and Ben Edlund, creator of The Tick, has co-written two episodes of The Venture Bros. (Patrick Warburton, who played the Tick in the short-lived live-action series, also provides the voice of Brock Samson.) Origins Christopher McCulloch, alias Jackson Publick, created The Venture Bros.' '' storyline sometime prior to 2000. After working for the television programs ''Sheep in the Big City and the live-action The Tick, McCulloch set to turning The Venture Bros. into an animated series. The Venture Bros. was originally conceived of as a comic book story for an issue of Monkeysuit. McCulloch realized that his notes were too extensive for a short comic story, and decided to pitch it as an animated series to Comedy Central, but it was rejected. After writing the first draft of the pilot script in the spring of 2000, the premise was not greenlit until around the summer of 2002 by Adult Swim. Prior to realizing that Cartoon Network had an adult-themed block, Adult Swim, McCulloch did not consider Cartoon Network because he "didn't want to tone The Venture Bros. down." With the revised pilot, production began in autumn of that year and the pilot was first run on February 16, 2003. The first season of the series was completed in 2004 and it was added to the summer schedule in August. Characters ] The characters of the Venture Bros. are largely either reimaginings of the characters from Jonny Quest, comic book superheroes and supervillains, or other famous figures from popular culture. Hank (voiced by Christopher McCulloch) and Dean Venture (voiced by Michael Sinterniklaas) are the two titular brothers of the show; both boys have vigorous tendencies, with Hank being the more adventurous and Dean being "effeminate" and the more bookish of the two. The brothers' father and only living parent, Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture (voiced by James Urbaniak), currently runs the fictional Venture Industries. Dr. Venture assumes the occupation of a "super-scientist," although his knowledge in the field is questionable (in one episode it is revealed that he never finished college, and thus is not a "doctor" of anything.) Brock Samson (voiced by Patrick Warburton) is the massively muscled and hyper-masculine bodyguard to the Venture family. He holds rank as an Office of Secret Intelligence agent with a license to kill that he is eager to exercise. Dr. Venture's deceased father, Dr. Jonas Venture (voiced by Paul Boocock), developed an emotional and loyal robot named H.E.L.P.eR. (voiced by Soul-Bot) that accompanies and assists the Ventures. Similar to other science fiction series, the Venture family has various recurring, antagonistic villains; they are or were members of The Guild of Calamitous Intent, the fictional guild that bears resemblance to the Legion of Doom. The pernicious but ineffective Monarch (voiced by Christopher McCulloch), his manly-voiced girlfriend, Dr. Girlfriend (voiced by Doc Hammer, and modeled after Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis) and their numerous henchmen are some of the Venture family's main villains, although Dr. Venture does not reciprocate the Monarch's obsessive antagonism. Another villain, Baron Werner Ünderbheit (voiced by T. Ryder Smith), is the dictator of the duchy of Ünderland and specifically opposes Dr. Venture due to unresolved differences between them in college. The Phantom Limb (voiced by James Urbaniak) is a high-ranking member of The Guild of Calamitous Intent and former lover of Dr. Girlfriend. The Ventures also have acquaintances that are used to help progress stories and add to the atmosphere of the show. The expert necromancer, Dr. Byron Orpheus (voiced by Steven Rattazzi), and his goth daughter, Triana (voiced by Lisa Hammer), rent out a portion of the Venture Compound. The flamboyant, albino, 80's-ish scientist Pete White (voiced by Christopher McCulloch) is a former college friend of Dr. Venture's who usually appears in the company of hydrocephalic "boy genius," Master Billy Quizboy (voiced by Doc Hammer). Surviving members of the original Team Venture, a group of extraordinary people assembled by Dr. Jonas Venture, also figure into an episode of the show. Episodes The second season of the series premiered on the internet via Adult Swim Fix Premiered on the World Wide Web as part of Adult Swim Fix prior to the television broadcast http://www.adultswim.com/adultswimfix/venturebros/index.html?11. on June 23, 2006 and on television on June 25, 2006. The considerable delay between the end of the first season and the start of the second was partially caused by Adult Swim's delay in deciding whether to renew the show but was mainly caused by the fact that the show is drawn and inked in the traditional animation style, albeit digitally, causing each episode to take considerable time to move through production. Additionally, the producers were dealing with time constraints of producing a Season One DVD that contained live action interviews and commentary Every episode opens with a letterboxed scene prior to the opening title sequence. Additionally, every episode has a short scene following the credits that usually wraps up the episode humorously or reveals something important about the characters (usually both). Each episode is "presented in glorious EXTRA-color", as jokingly stated during the end credits of each episode-a reference to Hanna-Barbera programs in their golden age being presented in Technicolor. The only normal episodes that this is missing from are episode 2, "Careers in Science", and episode 13, "Return to Spider-Skull Island" (however, this episode was cut down for length). Homages and References Adventure Stories: By and large the series is based on adventure serials, pulps, and related stories in the genre. The most obvious homage is Jonny Quest, as noted in the article's introduction, in that Dr. Venture represents Benton Quest, Brock as Race Bannon, and the Venture boys as the children of Benton-albeit pushed to humorous extremes as Dr. Venture is extremely lazy and corner-cutting, Brock is overzealous in killing and eliminating threats, and the boys utter morons, stuck in a 1960s mindset. The boys' age (being at least sixteen years old) and themselves going out to solve mysteries and problems is reminiscent of The Hardy Boys as well, as Jackson Publick started off with sketches of what he called 'dim-witted Hardy Boys'. Marvel Comics: An extremely large amount of characters from the Marvel Universe are parodies or referenced in the show. The most prominent is the necromancer and major supporting character Dr. Orpheus, who is based on Doctor Strange and shares his penchant for overly dramatic and elaborate words and phrases. The character of Baron Ünderbheit is patterned after Doctor Doom: Both share a similar origin and both rule a small eastern European nation with an iron fist. The resemblance is so strong that at one point the Monarch actually refers to the Baron as a “dime-store Dr. Doom”. Another episode, "Ice Station -- Impossible!" had the Venture family meeting up with a family that had received horrific, useless versions of the Fantastic Four's powers. A retired gung-ho soldier called the Action Man is a lesser version of Captain America. The uniforms of the Monarch's Henchmen closely resemble the original costumes of the X-Men. Various other minor references exist in the episode "Hate Floats" as Dr. Venture, the Monarch, and Henchmen 21 and 24 "arm" themselves with various toy memorabilia that recall the Hulk, Magneto, and Spider-Man. Also belonging to Henchman 21 in the same episode are Wolverine's claws, Captain America's shield, and Batman's utility belt -- or at least collectible replica props thereof. In several episodes, the boys are shown to wear superhero pajamas, with Dean's being modelled after Spider-Man, and Hank's resembling Aquaman's costume. Thus far DC Comics references have been much rarer; Besides the Aquaman and Batman references noted above, Hank was once shown wearing a poorly-made Batman costume. Also, the minor villain Mr. Monday could be considered an homage to Batman's rogues gallery; like many of Batman's foes, his only power seems to be an odd obsession (in this case, with Mondays). Specifically, his monocle and cigarette holder give him a more-than-passing resemblance to the Penguin, and his obsession with days and calendars is similar to Calendar Man. David Bowie: The dialogue between characters Major Tom and the Action Man at the beginning of "Ghosts of the Sargasso" refers to the famous David Bowie songs "Space Oddity" and "Ashes to Ashes." Major Tom's spacecraft is named TVC 15, the title of another Bowie song. David Bowie also has an off-screen role in the plot of episode 4, "The Incredible Mr. Brisby" (David Bowie hires the mercenary Molatov Cocktease to steal back a panda bear that the episode's villain, Mr. Brisby, had won off of Bowie in a trivia contest) and is mentioned passingly in the Venture Bros. Movie mockumentary included on the DVD set. Led Zeppelin: There have been numerous references to Led Zeppelin, primarily in relation to Brock. In the episode "Eeney, Meeney, Miney... Magic!," Brock Samson tells Hank Venture not to listen to the album In Through the Out Door because "Zep sold out on that album." In "Mid-Life Chrysalis," Brock must take an exam to renew his license to kill; on the written portion, instead of answering the questions he draws the Swan Song Records logo representing Icarus. When the man grading his exam mentions the doodle, Brock replies "So what are you trying to tell me, little man, you don't like Zep?". Finally, in "The Incredible Mr. Brisby," Brock and his love interest Molotov Cocktease reminisce about their last meeting: in Akron, Ohio, where they watched "Laser Zeppelin" at a planetarium. General Pop Culture: In the episode "Past Tense", the character of Mike Sorayama is extremely similar in personality and characteristics to the character Mike Yanagita in the 1996 film Fargo. Both characters speak with a distinct Minnesotan accent (including the phrase "son of a gun") and share an unhealthy obsession with former classmates. In fact, Mike Sorayama and Mike Yanagita are both portrayed by actor Steve Park. The character's name also refers to that of artist Hajime Sorayama, whose illustrations of "Sexy Robots" have appeared in Heavy Metal magazine. Mike Sorayama constructs female robots with a similar design, and when Dr. Venture sees them he comments, "Yeah, I read that issue of Heavy Metal too." Numerous other pop culture references are abundant. Henchman 21 plays with a gadget that resembles a Star Wars lightsaber while practicing faux swordplay in the style of that used by Ghyslain Raza, better known as the "Star Wars kid". In Trial of The Monarch; the agents of The Guild Of Calamitous Intent names, garb and operations are inspired by the antagonists of the 90's Scifi thriller Dark City. Like the antagonists of Dark City they dress in fur trench coats, alter peoples memories after putting them in a state of stasis, and are called "Strangers". Also The Monarch is put into a similar circumstance as that of the protagonist of Dark City, John Murdock; both are blamed for a murder they can't remember and didn't commit. Other references, most of which are used as "one-shot" jokes, include Easy Rider, Lydia Lunch, mullets, John Woo films, the questionable sexuality of members of Depeche Mode, and the music video for Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf." In the episode "Assassinanny 911", Brock Samson's trainer, "Hunter" is a tribute to the late journalist, Hunter S. Thompson, right down to his clipped tone and mumblings. Dr. Venture's airplane, the X-1, is named after the Bell X-1 which was the first aircraft to exceed the speed of sound. Additionally, his boat, which he gave to Jonas, Jr., is named the X-2. DVD releases The first season of The Venture Bros. on DVD was released on May 30, 2006, as officially announced by Warner Home Video http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=5026. It coincides with the June 25th premiere of Season 2. Originally, it was scheduled for March 14, 2006, but was delayed until May 30, 2006. The DVD packaging and interior art was created by comic artist Bill Sienkiewicz. On May 31, 2006, the DVD reached #1 on Amazon's top selling DVD's list. DVD info: *A two disc set which includes all 13 episodes of season one *Includes the 2003 pilot "The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay" and the 11-minute holiday episode "A Very Venture Christmas" *Deleted scenes *Behind-the-scenes mockumentary with cast and crew *Commentary Tracks on: **"Mid-Life Chrysalis" **"Eeney, Meeney, Miney... Magic!" **"Tag Sale -- You're It!" **"Ghosts of the Sargasso" **"Return to Spider-Skull Island" **"The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay" References *''The Venture Bros.'' Created by Christopher McCulloch (credited as Jackson Publick). 2004-present. Broadcast and DVD. * External links * The Official Venture Brothers Website * Jackson Publick's Venture Bros. Livejournal * James Urbaniak's Livejournal (James Urbaniak - the voice of Dr. Thaddeus S. "Rusty" Venture) * The Venture Brothers Livejournal community * Adult Swim - Venture Bros. Website * Scrotal Safety Commission (A satirical site on testicular torsion created by Doc Hammer for the episode "Are You There God, It's Me, Dean") * The People's Republic of Venture (A fan site made by VB fans for VB fans and has been mentioned on James Urbaniak's livejournal as his favorite Venture Bros. fan site/forums) * The Mantis-Eye Experiment (A fan site with in-depth analysis of each episode) * * Gallery of Venture Bros Season #1 Storyboard Art http://www.chrisis.org/lace_onscreen/vb1map.html *Go Team Venture! Venture Bros Fanlist * The Wiki Of Calamitous Intent A Venture Brothers Wiki * TVRage's Episode Guide for The Venture Bros. * summary on TV. com Venture Bros., The Category:The Venture Bros. Venture Bros., The Venture Bros., The